Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. ("Toyoda Gosei")(President: Mr. Takashi Matsuura) announced today that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nichia Corporation in the Osaka District Court seeking injunction against Nichia Corporation's manufacturing, use, sale and offering for sale of the gallium nitride based Blue LED. Concerning the subject patent, as were previously covered in news reports, the Supreme Court rejected, on September 14, 2001, Nichia Corporation's appeal against the Judgment of Tokyo High Court annulling the trial decision for invalidation of patent given by the JPO, and thus, Toyoda Gosei has won the litigation.

The patent, Japanese Patent No. 2737053, entitled "A Light-Emitting Gallium Nitride-Based Compound Semiconductor Device", relates to a basic composition of a LED device having a double-hetrostructure with an un-doped active layer, allowing the light-emitting efficiency to be improved.

Please note that Toyoda Gosei withdrew today the lawsuit that has been pending at Tokyo District Court seeking injunction prohibiting Nichia Corporation's manufacturing and sale based on the patent as Toyoda Gosei considers the accused products is not currently offered for sale.

Toyoda Gosei has been developing Blue LED as a pioneering enterprise ahead of Nichia Corporation. Toyoda Gosei has been litigating against Nichia Corporation with respect to a number of patents, etc., and will continue asserting to enforce its intellectual property rights.